Cardboard Joinery📦

In this week's practical, we were to work on cardboard as our material, to have a hands-on experience with the different joinery and finally design our very own visual board.

In order to do that, we had to understand what cardboard is first!

Here's our findings:🔎

1. Composition:📏

Made up of containerboard which includes linerboard and corrugating medium, the two types of paper that make up corrugated fibreboard. Corrugating medium is glued between two linerboard pieces to add rigidity.

2. Types of paper:📜

Different paper affects properties of the corrugated material. Kraft and Test liners are common paper used. Kraft are used more than Test papers as it is stronger, thus Kraft paper is used for outside liner and Test paper used for inner.

(Kraft)

3. Wall Types:𝦲

In addition to flutes, "wall" can be used to enhance the strength and sturdiness of the material. As the name suggests, it is just a wall between the flutes (wavy lines). Acting as an additional lining between the flutes.

(Single Wall)

(Double Wall)

4. Flute type uses:〰️

Flutes are what makes cardboard corrugated. It is the corrugated section between two pieces of paper. Different functions could be fulfilled by varying the height/size of the flute. Double-walled cardboard can consist of differing flute sizes to achieve more than one function.

Hands-on Time!🗡

Finally the real deal. We were given an exemplary visual board which nicely shows the types of joinery and how they were combined.

Even though the joinery shown above may look simple and easy. You would be as surprised as I am, these joineries are extremely crucial in making your prototype for your product. As making the actual product using 'real' material (material of choice in real product) would be way too expensive as a trial and error. Cardboard would be the best alternative as it is relatively easy to handle. The joinery can actually combine and even make a stool, which was one example shared my our lecturer Dr Noel!

After brainstorming on what we want to include in our visual board, it was time to cut some boards!

Here's some candid shots we had during our practical:

After thinking of how we can make a small design which consist of multiple joineries. Honestly it almost felt like a competition since we had to complete it within a given time and had to label as well as design it!
Get ready for Lion's Visual Board:

We created a calendar, table and even our very own Wheel of Fortune!

Our favourite: Wheel of Fortune!

Presentation Time! Finally to show the class what Lion is!

Firstly, we made 5 different prototypes to be presented.

Our first one, which was the most difficult to make, made use of 4 different types of joineries, Scoring, Bends, Flange as well as slots. We scored the cardboard as well as making use of bending to form a pentagon shape, connecting it using the slots.

Our second one makes use of two joineries, hole and ziptie. Using this method, we were able to make a flappable calendar with a secret message under it :)

For our third one, using the spare cardboard we had left over from the other prototypes, we made a gusset, it was not necessary, but we wanted to minimise as much waste as we could.

For the fourth one, we took the idea put on the sample board and elevated it. We did the tab and slots, but instead of using hot glue to stick the tabs, we used holes and brass fasteners to secure the tab in place in order to ensure the tabs stay put.

Lastly, our favourite in terms of fun, we made use of brass fasteners as well as holes to make a functional Wheel of Fortune game, which we had fun playing with. To make the circle as perfect as possible, we used the rubber band and pencil technique which proved to work well.

Our Mini Assignment: Project Unicorn🦄

We were each given a piece of cardboard that had been cut. We each brought it back home to craft this legendary creature. Here's the process of each of our member. Enjoy!

Project Unicorn: Dorson

After learning the techniques on the different joineries. It’s time for us to make our very own unicorn!

We were each given a piece of cardboard that had pieces cut out (I believe it was laser cut, since the cuts were super clean).

These were the parts we were given:

Of course I could refer to YouTube for help, but there’s no fun without a challenge, right?

At first, I was stuck as I did not know which to begin with, but after looking at every part. I realised that the easiest would be the body since it would make up the bulk of the item.

I first constructed the body using bends, slots and tabs. There were many bends to do and I learnt that I had to use a ruler since I almost bent other parts wrongly.

As seen in the picture, a bend with slots and tabs were combined to form the leg of the unicorn.

Next, fill in the parts! The unicorn had some missing parts as I only constructed the body.

One example would be the tail! Which uses slot.

After which, I proceeded with the head and the wings.

Behold The Legendary Unicorn!!

My unicorn is finally looking sexy, but something’s missing. It can’t flap it’s wings!

Oh no… I had to create a mechanism so that I could help this unicorn!

After brainstorming, I decided to use rubber bands to tie the unicorn wings (inside the body) to the tail(inside the body).

From the picture, you could see that I made a slit so that the rubber band could be nicely intact.

I connected the rubber band so that the unicorn wings would be facing forward and when I push my finger up, the wings would move, while relaxing my finger the wings would retract. In short, a gentle push would make the wings flap.

Finally, the Majestic Unicorn was able to soar through the clouds.🦄

Derrick's Little Assignment

To assemble a winged unicorn (sorry Dr. Noel but actually, it’s a pegacorn, which is a hybrid of a pegasus and unicorn since it has both wings and a horn)

Even before I start with the assembly, I notice that most of the pieces have creases, which suggests that bending the pieces is one of the most important joinery techniques used in the assembly of this pegacorn.

Anyways, let’s start with the assembly!

WAIT! I just realised that only one side of the cardboard pieces had creases while the other side did not. To me, this means that the pieces that had creases could only be folded toward one side. Using my intuition, I decided that the cardboard pieces could only be bent towards the side where the creases are visible, because the cardboard pieces are more easily bent that way.

When working with cardboard sculptures is that one shouldn’t use too much force when bending and fitting tabs into slots or simply just holding it. This is because one may unwittingly bend the cardboard and create creases which MAY not look aesthetically pleasing (as if the colour of cardboard isn’t ugly enough already). This is a mistake that I have made but from now on, I will remember to be manually dextrous when working with relatively delicate materials.

Since I tried to assemble the pegacorn without referring to the video, I figured the best way to assemble it is from the inside out. Meaning, I would start with the body, which happens to be the largest piece, and work my way into the smaller parts that would be attached to the body.

Due to the effectiveness of the slots and tabs, I need not use any kind of adhesives to join the pieces and maintain the pegacorn’s glorious stature.

dont mind ice bear 😊

However, a pegacorn may not be able to fly with flapping its wings. With the help of a rubber band, we shall breathe life into this pegacorn!

I noticed that the head of the pegacorn has a notch. With this in mind, I wanted to take advantage of this feat so that I could flap its wings.

So the concept of the wing flapping revolves around a reciprocating pulling motion on a length of string that is tied to a rubber band which holds the two wings together so that both wings could be flapped simultaneously, by the same length of string instead of having 2 separate lengths of string to activate both wings. I also used my name tag, printed by the one and only Dr Noel, for identification and a handle for me to pull to animate my pegacorn.

Here is the pegacorn flapping it's wings!

CRIKEY! This is the rare pegacorn, in its natural habitat. What a fantastic opportunity to observe its natural behavior!

It ain't much, but it's honest work.

Haziq's Unicorn

We were tasked to create a mythical, yet beautiful creature, a unicorn (although its technically a pegasus as it has wings) but ignoring that, this was quite the process so let me walk you through how it went from cardboard to mythical creature.

Step 1 : Analyse and Unpack

We were given many pieces, but i yet to let it intimidate me one bit. I came up with the approach to work on the biggest part, the body, followed by the head and then the rest.

Step 2 : Creasing

In this example, creases can be seen made in order to form the shape of the head, and for them to fold nicely into one another.

Step 3 : Assembly

Now with all the pieces of the puzzle solved, it was time to put it all together, from pieces of flat cardboard, to 3d figures, and finally, the unicorn (aka the pegasus). This was the easiest part for me as it took a bit of slotting in and it all worked out fantastic

Step 4 : Final product

And there it is, the unicorn ( pegasus really ) is born and crafted by my bare hand and with help of my hands and magic itself, I gave life into this unicorn.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what is the point of all this if it doesnt flap its wings. My friend, we are not done just yet.

With the help of a magic tool, known as a rubber band, our unicorn ( again its a pegasus ) will truly come to life before our very eyes? How? Let me demonstrate.

Step 5 : ITSSS ALIVEEE !!!!!

As i said, using the magical tool known as an elastic band ( rubber band ) , we are able to rig it to both wings and when we pull on the rubber band, the wings flap !

Besides the fan, which i promise you, is not blowing the wings, appreciate such beauty, such grace, that is my creation. The Unicorn ( ITS A PEGASUS !!! )

And that was how i went from a cardboard sheet, to a flapping unicorn ( okay fine I am tired, its a unicorn ), I hope you enjoyed the demonstration !!